Bomb threat

April 22, 2013

Students and staff were rerouted and evacuated from Cridersville Elementary School this morning after a bomb threat.

Wapakoneta City Schools Superintendent Keith Horner said the threat was discovered at this school this morning shortly before 7:45 a.m., requiring that they make other plans for 37 staff members and 341 kindergarten through fourth-grade students, as well as preschoolers who attend class in the building each day.

“It happened at the time of day that as soon as we found out we started evacuations and rerouting kids,” Horner said.

The Cridersville Elementary School day begins at 8:15 a.m.

For now, students were taken to a location of the Cridersville United Methodist Church.

As of 9 a.m., the Allen County Regional Bomb Squad was on scene and searching the building.

Horner said he hoped to have students back inside shortly after the building was cleared.

He said an elementary student at school early today discovered the threat and reported it to staff.

“We’re going to handle these situations more and more seriously,” Horner said. “People are not getting the message.

“We have less empathy than we have ever had,” he said.

A student who made a bomb threat at Wapakoneta Middle School in January is currently going through the court system in connection with that incident, Horner said.